Tuesday, 20 September 2005

Page titles should be such a simple aspect of Web page production. Yet a bit of thought, and broad understanding of a potential audience will go a long way to getting content more widely read.

Short, clean, meaningful and relevant. A title of the actual page your are on is what your are striving for. Not the name of the site, that can come afterwards, but when people are reading links, RSS feeds, and search engine results, the first half dozen words need to convey the purpose and benefits of the user visiting a page.

Don't try to be too clever, cryptic or pretend the content is something better than it actually is (visitors might be enticed once, but probably never again, and they might tell their friends, or the Web community!)

Nothing too long, but a brief and succint description of what the page is about. This may seem like more hard work than at first sight, but it will benefit the sites popularity among users and search engines alike.

It stays fairly true to the original story despite being a Hollywood funded flick, the cast dow ell to fill out the crazy scenes and showing off Adams' clever wit, sarcasm and irony.

And in the UK, there's a bonus disc with a making of, that starts from the day the Director gets the green light to start making it. It was a fascinating hour, a literal behind-the-scenes documentary giving a real feel of how the crew of animatronics experts, set-designers, etc. and cast put it all together.

He always knew what to say, Richie Benaud was a great in, and broadcasting on the great game. And what a series to bow out on English soil. Possibly the greatest series ever, at least in the modern game. England have come through against the best team in the world.

The key for the Zimbabwe players is sticking together. If they all sign the petition, they leave the board little option but to do something about the contract situation. They can't very continue with no players.
It is so frustrating that the ICC have remained on the fence, and that the wortld continues to sit by why the black racist elite of Zimbabwe misguidedly ravage anything that was good within the country. Read: Cricinfo - Players call for Chingoka and Bvute to quit

Wednesday, 7 September 2005

From Wisden/Cricinfo: The Oval"This is where it all began. The first-ever Test on English soil was played here in September 1880, resulting in an England win over Australia by five wickets, with WG Grace scoring a hundred on debut, and this is where a Test series in England traditionally ends.

More pertinently, this is the historic venue where the legend of the Ashes was born a couple of years after the inaugural Test, in August 1882. England, chasing only 85 to win, slumped from 51 for 2 to 78 all out. The next morning The Sporting Times published its famous mock obituary and the legend was born.

The Oval has witnessed many historic matches. England's dramatic one-wicket win in 1902 inspired by Gilbert Jessop's sensational hundred; Australia's 701 in 1934 as Don Bradman (244) and Bill Ponsford (266) put on 451 for the second wicket; England's 903 for 7 as they beat Australia by an innings and 579 runs in 1938; Bradman's farewell duck in 1948; Denis Compton scoring the boundary which meant England regained the Ashes in 1953; Michael Holding's 14 wickets on a featherbed in 1976; Devon Malcolm's 9 for 57 against South Africa in 1994.

Owned by the Duchy of Cornwall (who is the Prince of Wales, hence his feathers have appeared on Surrey's badge since 1915), The Oval came about in the 1790s when an oval road was laid round what was then a cabbage patch. When a subsequent market garden failed, the land was opened as a cricket ground in 1845 after 10,000 turfs were brought in from Tooting Common. It has been Surrey headquarters ever since, even though it has been well outside the county boundary for many years.

It has hosted many other important sporting occasions and can claim to be the most important general sports ground in the world. It staged the first FA Cup final in 1872 (won by Wanderers in front of 2000 spectators) and the following year the first England international (against Scotland). It was the home of the FA Cup final between 1874 and 1892. In 1876 it staged to the first England v Wales and England v Scotland rugby internationals, and in 1877 to rugby's Varsity match. In addition, it has witnessed rock concerts (The Who and The Faces in 1971), ice skating and the now traditional end-of-season Aussie Rules match. It was also a POW camp during the Second World War."

Friday, 2 September 2005

"He [Mohammad Sidique Khan] mocked British Muslims who condemned the attacks. 'We tell them treatment in kind is just,' he said." Murder is never just, innocent victims, his own countrymen, killed unjustly.

Cricinfo reports "as five of India's cricketing stars took time away from their busy tour schedule to meet more than 100 orphans at a UNICEF-supported education project on the outskirts of Harare." Read: Cricinfo - World’s apart, but arm in arm

Read Webcredible's article, "looking at how we interact with the world in our everyday life, we can learn some of the techniques we use and begin to understand why they work so well. We can then employ the same methods in web design to create a similarly easy experience.": Web journeys

Closing thoughts

Richard Kendall 2003-2009Disclaimer: The views expressed on richardkendall.blogspot.com are those of me, Richard Kendall and not of my employers. And I'm not responsible for the content of external sites and cannot guarantee that every link will work!